The Gaza Board of Peace has given Hamas until the end of the week to accept a disarmament proposal, with the US-led international body overseeing the postwar management of the Strip determined to advance its reconstruction even as the Iran war persists, three sources familiar with the matter told The Times of Israel on Monday.

The Board of Peace’s High Representative for Gaza Nickolay Mladenov met with a delegation of senior Hamas officials in Cairo on Friday, and the terror group has been informed that the Gaza oversight board wants a disarmament agreement finalized by the end of the week, two Arab diplomats and a third source said, confirming reporting in The New York Times on condition of anonymity.

The sources clarified that minor amendments to the disarmament proposal would still be considered, while requests for fundamental changes by Hamas would not be accepted.

Mladenov is convinced that it is possible to move ahead with the second phase of US President Donald Trump’s plan for ending the Gaza war, one of the Arab diplomats said, while acknowledging that Middle East mediating countries Egypt, Qatar and Turkey are not as optimistic.

The mediators are leaning hard on Hamas to accept the US-backed disarmament proposal, but the terror group is “unlikely to say ‘yes’ without significant caveats,” said the Arab diplomat, who is from one of the mediating countries.

“And even if they do, it’s unlikely that Israel will comply,” the diplomat added, arguing that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu would not authorize an additional pullback from Gaza during an election year, as his coalition partners continue backing maintaining a permanent Israeli presence in the Strip.

At the Friday meeting in Cairo, Hamas officials refrained from outright rejecting the disarmament proposal, which Mladenov first presented to them last month, the Arab diplomat said.

Instead, they highlighted what they said has been Israel’s failure to adhere to the first phase of Trump’s plan, pointing to the limited operation of the........

© The Times of Israel